S.B. Morgaine, a 39-year-old lesbian Atheist resident of Laurel, will tell the tale of her "exorcism" at a religious retreat more than 20 years ago at next week's Stoop Storytelling Series show.

S.B. Morgaine, a 39-year-old lesbian Atheist resident of Laurel, will tell the tale of her "exorcism" at a religious retreat more than 20 years ago at next week's Stoop Storytelling Series show. (Photo courtesy of S.B. Morgaine)

Kevin Rector, The Baltimore Sun

Next week's Stoop Storytelling show will feature a queer storyteller talking about her religious 'exorcism.'

When S.B. Morgaine learned the theme for next week's Stoop Storytelling Series show -- "strange-but-true happenings" -- she knew just the tale to tell.

More than two decades ago, when the now 39-year-old Atheist was a young evangelical Christian teen going to church seven days a week in a small town in eastern Washington state, leaders at a religious retreat conducted an exorcism on her, she says.

"My group leader said she thought I had demons," Morgaine said, and at the time, she thought she did, too.

"I knew I felt different about my girl friends than they felt about me or other girls, but I couldn't have said at that time that I was gay," she said.

By the end of the strange and traumatic experience, the leader told Morgaine she had been cured.

"She said my demons were gone. I disagreed with her because I still felt gay," she said.

My group leader said she thought I had demons.— Storyteller S.B. Morgaine

Then she heard a voice in her head, which she thought at the time was coming from God, tell her she was fine the way she was. (Now she thinks it was a "stress-induced hallucination.")

"It was probably one of the better things that ever happened to me, because I no longer had the stress that a lot of evangelical people feel, that being gay is wrong," she said. "I came out of the closet, am totally fine with it, have never looked back and have no shame."

Morgaine -- who now lives with her wife of two years and their "two cute dogs" in Laurel -- will explain the rest as she takes the stage as part of the Stoop series at 8 p.m. Monday at Centerstage.

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